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The Place of Local History in Philippine Historiography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

John A. Larkin
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Extract

One of the major problems in the writing of Philippine history stems from inadequate knowledge of historical conditions in the rural Philippines. The problem is further complicated by a tendency to treat society as a monolithic structure susceptible to outside influence and change at a uniform rate. Consequently, it has proved difficult to judge accurately the impact on Philippine society of such phenomena as colonialism, the Revolution of 1896 and national politics in the twentieth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian History , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , September 1967 , pp. 306 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1967

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References

1. See, for example, Henson, Mariano A., The Province of Pampanga and Its Towns, (3rd ed. rev.) Angeles, Pampanga 1963Google Scholar, and Tantuico, Francisco S. Jr, Leyte. The Historic Islands, Tacloban City, Leyte 1964.Google Scholar

2. Keesing, Felix M., The Ethnohistory of Northern Luzon, Stanford, California 1962Google Scholar; Saleeby, Najeeb M., The History of Sulu, Manila 1963.Google Scholar

3. The best modern historical scholarship has dealt primarily with national and supra-regipnal matters. Friend, Theodore's Between Two Empires, The Ordeal of the Philippines, 1929–1946, New Haven and London 1965Google Scholar, examines American-Philippine relations within the context of the larger issues of Asian diplomacy while Saniel, Josefa similarly treats Philippine-Japanese relations for an earlier period in Japan and the Philippines, 1868–1898, Quezon City 1962Google Scholar. Two outstanding works record the historical development of Philippine governmental structure: Onofre D. Corpuz traces the growth of a national bureaucracy from Spanish times down to the post World War II era in his The Bureaucracy in the Philippines Manila 1957Google Scholar; Cunningham, Charles's The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies, Berkeley 1919Google Scholar, is a classic in the field. Three Filipino scholars provide the most significant new work on the Philippine Revolution in their biographies of well-known patriots: Guerrero, Leon Ma.'s The First Filipino, A Biography of Jose Rizal, Manila 1963Google Scholar, and Majul, Cesar's Apolinario Mabini, Revolutionary, Manila 1964Google Scholar, both present moving and sympathetic pictures of two major Filipino intellectuals of the period, while Agoncillo, Teodoro in his The Revolt of the Masses, Quezon City 1956Google Scholar, recounts the story of Andres Bonifacio, chief instigator of the armed conflict against Spain.

Even the more specialized studies have approached specific topics across local boundaries. de la Costa, Horacio's The Jesuits in the Philippines, 1581–1768, Cambridge, Mass. 1961CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Wickberg, Edgar's The Chinese in Philippine Life, 1850–1898, New Haven and London 1965Google Scholar, both examine the Archipelagowide activities of their respective groups. In a study of Filipino adaptation to the first century of Spanish rule, Phelan, John Leddy provides an excellent overview The Hispanization of the Philippines, Madison Wisconsin 1959Google Scholar, which, nevertheless, needs clarification through local studies.

4. The Philippine census of 1960 reveals that even at present rural population heavily predominates over urban, although the pattern has been slowly changing in the present century. [Huke, Robert, Shadows on the Land, An Economic Geography of the Philippines, Makati Rizal 1963, pp. 153–155].Google Scholar

5. A large body of scholarship on contemporary Philippine rural communities already exists. The work reflects the efforts of a solid group of anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists. The Community Development Research Council at the University of the Philippines alone has been sponsoring around forty major research projects on local problems; one of the most useful of those already completed is Hollnsteiner, Mary, The Dynamics of Power in a Philippine Municipality, Quezon City 1963Google Scholar. Other recent and notable studies that discuss local loyalties include: Lynch, Frank S. J., Social Class in a Bicol Town, Chicago 1959Google Scholar; Kaut, Charles, “Contingency in a Tagalog Society,” Asian Sthidies, III (04 1965), pp. 1–15Google Scholar; Nurge, Ethel, Life in a Leyte Village, Seattle 1965Google Scholar; Grossholtz, Jean, Politics in the Philippines, Boston and Toronto 1964Google Scholar; Lande, Carl H., Leaders, Factions, and Parties, The Structure oi Philippine Politics, New Haven 1965.Google Scholar

6. Questions related to the one issue of Philippine independence have attracted more attention from twentieth century Filipinists than any other topic. One of the most important early scholars to focus on the subject was LeRoy, James A. in his two works, Philippine Life in Town and Country, New York and London 1905Google Scholar, and The Americans in the Philippines, (2 vols.), Boston 1914Google Scholar. Around the time of the establishment of the Commonwealth, Kirk, Grayson V.'s Philippine Independence, New York 1936Google Scholar, and Hawes, Harry B.' Philippine Uncertainty, New York and London 1932Google Scholar, put the independence issue in the context of thirtyfive years of Philippine-American relations. More recent reinterpretations include Friend, Theodore, op. cit.Google Scholar, and the somewhat less adequate Grunder, Garel A. and Livezey, William E., The Philippines and the United States, Norman Okla. 1951Google Scholar. The latter is particularly lacking in important foreign sources.

7. Little scholarly work has so far been done on the economic origins of the Hukbalahap movement. Some useful information can be found in Taruc, Luis, Born of the People, New York 1953Google Scholar; Anon., “The Peasant War in the Philippines,” Philippine Social Sciences and Humanities Review, XXIII (06–12, 1958), pp. 373–436Google Scholar; Lieberman, Victor, “Why the Hukbalahap Movement Failed,” Solidarity, I (10–12 1966), pp. 22–30.Google Scholar

8. Currently the University of the Philippines is undertaking a project to microfilm substantial blocks of material from the Philippine Archives. Indexes of these films can be examined at the Institute of Asian Studies, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Rizal.

9. Wickberg, , op. cit.Google Scholar See also his article “The Chinese Mestizo in Philippine History,” Journal of Southeast Asian History, V (03 1964), pp. 62–100.Google Scholar

10. Fox, Robert, Sibley, Willis, and Eggan, Fred, “A Preliminary Glottochronology for Northern Luzon,” Asian Studies, III (04 1965), pp. 103–113Google Scholar. Works on the Capampangan dialect have been neither numerous nor particularly useful. Two of the earliest works were undertaken by an Augustinian friar, Bergaño, DiegoArte de la lengua pampanga, (Manila 1729)Google Scholar; and Vocabulario de la lengua pampanga, en romance, (2nd ed.) Manila 1860Google Scholar. Books by Fernandez and Parker both qualify as cheap pocket grammars: Fernandez, P. E., Nuevo vocabulario ó manual de convesácioñes en español, tagalo y pampango, (4th ed.) Manila 1896Google Scholar; Parker, Luther, An English-Spanish-Pampango Dictionary, Manila 1905.Google Scholar

11. Gwekoh, Sol Hilario, Diosdado Macapagal: Triumph Over Poverty, Manila 1962, pp. 1–8.Google Scholar

12. The information on Pampangan society prior to 1898 comes from Larkin, John A., “The Evolution of Pampangan Society: A Case Study of Social and Economic Change in the Rural Philippines” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, New York University), pp. 90–136.Google Scholar

13. Agoncillo, Teodoro A., Malolos, The Crisis of the Republic, Quezon City 1960, p. 286Google Scholar; Kalaw, Teodoro M., The Philippine Revolution, Manila 1925, p. 103Google Scholar; Corpuz, Onofre D., The Philippines, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1965, p. 63.Google Scholar

14. LeRoy, James A., The Americans…, I, pp. 83, 85, 93Google Scholar; Williams, D. R., The United States and the Philippines, Garden City, New York 1926, pp. 70, 94Google Scholar; Taylor, George E., The Philippines and the United States. New York and London 1964, pp. 42–43.Google Scholar

15. Numerous authors relate the narrative of the Philippine Revolution. One of the most useful accounts is Zaide, Gregorio F.'s The Philippine Revolution, Manila 1954.Google Scholar

16. Alejandrino, José, The Price of Freedom, (trans. Alejandrino, José M.), Manila 1949, pp. 2–8.Google Scholar

17. Zaide, , op. cit., p. 41.Google Scholar

18. Kalaw, , op. cit., p. 5Google Scholar; Kalaw, Teodoro M., Philippine Masonry, (trans. Stevens, Frederic H. and Amechazurra, Antonio), Manila 1956, p. 111.Google Scholar

19. Agoncillo, Teodoro A. and Alfonso, Oscar M., A Short History of the Filipino People, Quezon City 1960, p. 212.Google Scholar

20. Kalaw, , The Philippine Revolution, p. 26.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., p. 43.

22. “Report of Spanish Casualties in Pampanga, August 23, 1896 to November 10, 1897,” trans. Taylor, J. R. M., in Taylor, John R. M. (Ed.), The Philippine Insurrection Against the United States, Washington 1906, [galley proof only], I. 17 LY.Google Scholar

23. At the time of the Philippine Revolution, the twenty or so parishes in the province of Pampanga probably had at their disposal one or two thousand hectares of land for the support of church activities. This estimate is based on incomplete information from the Philippine Archives.

The following lands were confiscated by the Philippine Revolutionary Government from Church establishments during 1898 and 1899. By all appearances, they represent total inventories.

[Philippine National Archives, Terrenos de la Pampanga, Expedientes Nos. 31, 32, 36, 38. 44].

* [Henson, Mariano A., A Brief History of the Town of Angeles, San Fernando, Pampanga 1948, pp. 3, 7].Google Scholar The Confraternity was an auxiliary lay organization devoted to good works. Its land did not indeed actually belong to the Parish of Angeles, although it was managed by a priest, Fr. Juan Merino.

The Church, then, controlled only a small portion of the approximately 105,677 hectares of land cultivated in Pampanga at that time [Sanger, J. P. et al. , Census of the Philippine Islands Taken under the Direction of the Philippine Commission in the Year 1903, Washington 1905, IV, p. 320].Google Scholar

24. Alejandrino, , op. cit., p. 30Google Scholar; Kalaw, , The Philippine Revolution, p. 73.Google Scholar

25. “Draft of a sketch of his career by F. Macabulos y Soliman, Insurgent General,” 07 10, 1898Google Scholar, quoted in Taylor, , op. cit., I, 68 LY.Google Scholar

26. Kalaw, , The Philippine Revolution, pp. 104–105.Google Scholar

27. Ibid., p. 112; Agoncillo, , Malolos…, p. 372.Google Scholar

28. Ibid., pp. 283–285; Kalaw, , The Philippine Revolution, pp. 193–194.Google Scholar

29. [?] Lugay, , “History of Bacolor, 1746–1909,”Google Scholar (trans. Milagrosa M. Martinez), Parker, Luther Collection, Library of the University of the Philippines, p. 19Google Scholar; [?] Punu, , “History of Bacolor, 1746–1908,”Google Scholar (trans. Milagrosa M. Martinez), Luther Parker Collection; Serrano, Apolinario, “History of Betis,”Google Scholar (trans. Milagroso M. Martinez), Parker, Luther Collection, p. 21Google Scholar. [The above three items are all unpublished manuscripts by Pampangan chroniclers of the Revolutionary period.] Henson, , Angeles…, p. 22Google Scholar; Kalaw, , The Philippine Revolution, pp. 104–105.Google Scholar

30. Elliott, Charles B., The Philippines to the End of the Military Regime, Indianapolis 1916, p. 466Google Scholar; Taylor, , op. cit., II, 4 HS.Google Scholar

31. Taylor, , op. cit., II, 94–95Google Scholar AJ, 8–9 HS; Philippine Islands, Military Governoi, Report of Major General E. S. Otis, United States Army, Commanding Division of the Philippines, Military Governor, September 1, 1899 to May 5, 1900, Washington 1901, pp. 11, 13Google Scholar; LeRoy, , The Americans…, II, pp. 41–42Google Scholar; Kalaw, , The Philippine Revolution, p. 216Google Scholar. The Manila Times during August 1899 carried almost daily accounts of engagements between Filipino and American troops in Pampanga.

32. The information for the guerrilla phase of the Revolution in Pampanga is taken from the Philippine Insurgent Records, formerly housed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., but now kept in the National Library of the Philippines in Manila. A microfilm copy of the Insurgent Records still remains in Washington. Most of the references used here come from Items 289 and 562 on rolls 22 and 33 of the microfilm.

33. US War Department, US Philippine Commission, Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1901. Report of the Philippine Commission in Two Parts, Washington 1901, pp. 11–17.Google Scholar

34. Manila Times, 29 08 1901, p. 1.Google Scholar

35. Zaide, , op. cit., p. 352, n. 108.Google Scholar

36. Becker, Carl Lotus, The History of Political Parties in the Province of New York, 1760–1776, Madison, Wisconsin 1960.Google Scholar

37. Sturtevant, David's recent and excellent article, “Guardia de Honor: Revitalization within the Revolution,” Asian Studies, IV (08 1966), pp. 342–352Google Scholar, suggests that the situation in Pangasinan differed markedly from that in either Pampanga or the Tagalog provinces.